The Lover
by Don't-just-don't
Summary: A Brain, An Athlete, A Basket-case, A Princess, A Lover and A Criminal all end up at the same place on one fateful Saturday morning. What's to be expected when you put John Bender, a rule-breaking Criminal and Maddison Van Doorn, a sexy confident Misfit, in the same room. Sparks fly, that's what. John/OC Brian/Claire Andrew/Allison
1. Chapter 1

_Saturday...March 24, 1984. Shermer High School, Shermer, Illinois. 60062. Dear Mr. Vernon...we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was that we did wrong, what we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write this essay telling you who we think we are, what do you care? You see us as you want to see us...in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a lover and a criminal. Correct? That's the way we saw each other at seven o'clock this morning. We were brainwashed..._

_o.O_

Being the first to walk into the Library of Shermer High School (siting down at the far end of the second row of tables on the right) was embarrassing to say the least. Which was stupid, because there was no-one the room to notice. But that wasn't important. What _was _important was the surprise that crossed her face when the first person, aside from her, to walk into the room was Clare Standish, the complete polar opposite to her in every single way save for two things. One, they were both in detention together. Two, they were both early to detention.

The next person to enter the room was, also, completely opposite. Whilst Claire was the look of perfection and beauty, and she was the poster-child for sexiness and mischief, Brian was nerdy, skinny and a rule-follower. But, given the stereotypes labelling her as the sort of person to wail on him, he just smiled nervously and sat down a table across from her as she threw him a friendly wave.

"Hey Mags," he said quietly, using the affectionate pet name anybody and everybody that she liked called her. Her real name was Maddison, and given she _hated _the name Maddie with a passion, everyone either called her Maddison, Maggie or Mags. And if _anyone _called her Maddie…

Brian was soon followed by Andrew Clark, who gestured to the chair next to Claire. She looked over at him for barely a second, before nodding, and he sat as though he really needed to pee. Maddison had to stifle a laugh at his awkwardness faded. But her amusement faded as she thought of the nine hours ahead of her, ruining _another _Saturday.

Not long after, a man that no one was surprised to see entered the library, touching as many things as possible on his way. Bender's eyes flickered one to Maddison, then to Brian, and he pointed to the table on the other end of the table. Brian sighed, and not meeting the other man's gaze, stood and sat at the other table. The next to enter was a girl dressed all in black, and she walked around the outside of the whole library before sitting down at the table at the furthest end of the room, behind Brian. Claire and Andrew snickered, while Brian just looked at the girl, Allison, in confusion.

Barely ten seconds passed, in which Bender spent having a one sided staring contest with Maddie, before Richard Vernon entered the room. He addressed the group with such disrespect that Maddison wondered how he ever got a teaching job in the first place. In his left hand were a stack of papers.

"Well...well. Here we are!" He said to the lot of them, staring around as though he were enjoying their pain immensely. "I want to congratulate you for being on time..."

A hand flew up in the room, and Claire's voice rang out through the silent room. "Excuse me, sir?" she said sweetly. "I think there's been a mistake. I know it's detention, but…um…I don't think I belong in here…"

Vernon barely acknowledged her. Instead, he continued as though she hadn't spoken a single. And for this, Maddison barely contained her own snicker.

"It is now 7:06. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways…"

Bender, ignoring the teacher given he had heard the speech a dozen times, spat into the air and caught it once more. Claire looked away, trying hard not to gag, while Maddison just raised her eyebrow and smirked, slightly impressed.

"…and you may not talk. You may not move from these seats." Brian, who had just been about to change to the seat beside him, stopped, and moved back. But Vernon wasn't paying attention to him. He walked right up to Bender, who had his feet on a chair propped out to the side.

"…And you…" Vernon glared, and pulled the chair out from under his feet. "…Will not sleep." He walked back to the front of the room to talk to the group. "Alright people, we're gonna try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay-of no less than a thousand words-describing to me who you think you are."

"Is this a test?" Bender asked immediately as Vernon started handing paper and pencils out. Vernon took no notice of him.

"And when I say essay, I man essay. I do not mean a single word repeated a thousand times." Finished with handing the equipment out, Vernon looked over at Bender and Maddison. "Is that Clear Mr. Bender, Miss. Van Doorn?"

Bender looked up. "Crystal," he said, while Maddison just vaguely nodded her head, concentrating on standing her pencil vertically on the table.

"Good," Vernon said. "Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourselves. Maybe you'll even decide – whether or not you'd like to return." He glanced around the room halfway through the sentence.

Brian raised his hands, and stood. "You know, I can answer that right now sir…That'd be No, no for me. 'Cause…"

"Sit down Johnson."

"Thank you sir…" He sat down.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Vernon pointed towards the door. At this point, Maggie started mouthing the words along with him, having too heard the speech a million times. "My office is right across the hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?"

"Yeah…" Bender said. "I got a question."

Vernon looked at him suspiciously, waiting.

"Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?" Maddison coughed to hide her laughter, but Vernon heard. He glared over at her, and asked.

"You think that's funny, Missy? Well let's see how funny you think it's gonna be when your back here next Saturday."

"I look forward to it, _sir_."

"Don't back talk me! You get another detention."

"Thank you, sir. I deserve my punishment, _sir." _

"Damn right you do." And finally sensing her sarcasm, he added, "Another one."

Maddison finally looked up at him from her pencil, and said sneakily, "You know, Rich, I think you enjoy my presence a bit too much. Do you want me to call a psychiatrist, or perhaps a Policeman?"

Vernon glared furiously at her, while Brian was smiling to keep in his giggles, Andrew and Claire were shaking their heads, amused, and even Allison was watching, amused. Bender, meanwhile, was smiling, waiting to see what she would come up with next.

"That's another detention!"

"Sir, I _really _think you need to tell your wife that she's not satisfying you. If you want attention from another person that you should find someone your own age. I have a friend who's single, would you like his number?"

Vernon's face was steadily turning a surprising shade of purple. He glared at the girl, took a deep breathe, and said to Bender. "I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull young man, you'll get the horns." And before leaving, he pointed a finger at Maddison and said, "And you missy, I'll expect you here for the next month. In fact, make that two months."

He left the room, Maddison flipping him the bird at the same time, while Brian, Claire and Andrew looked over at her, expecting just as much.

"That man…is a brownie hound…" Bender said, glancing at the door for a split second before returning his attention back to Maddison, who was glaring at the pencil as though it had done her a personal wrong. He watched a she picked it up, broke it easily in half, then throw-knifed it across the room so the pieces smashed into the wall and left black marks.

Noticing his gaze, she turned to look at him with a cocked eyebrow, and he smirked, flicking his hair out of his face. Then a clicking noise filled the room, and Bender's eyes widened at her as he turned and noticed what it was, along with everyone else.

It was Allison, chewing on his fingernails, and it wasn't long before she realised they were staring.

"You keep eating your hand and you're not gonna be hungry for lunch…" Bender said, trying to get her to stop without actually asking. She just spat a fingernail at him, though missed terribly. So, for her sake, Maddison reached across the table and slapped him lightly across the back of the head. He turned to glare at her, but didn't say anything.

Instead, her turned back to Allison, and added lightly, "I've seen you before, you know…"

There was silence after that, where everyone stared blankly at their papers aside from Bender and Maddison, who were both communicating between glances.

Then they heard Brian talking quietly to himself, playing with his pencil _with his mouth. _"Who do I think I am? Who are you? Who are you?" He hooked the pen over his lip so it was almost poking up his nose, and said, "I am walrus…"

Bender and Maddison looked at him in utter confusion. Brian noticed this, and pulled the pen off his lip with a laugh, embarrassed. The he began to take his coat off, alongside Bender, not realising they were doing so until they were halfway done. Bender glared at the other kid, and Brian pulled his jacket back on, rubbing his hands together as though he were cold. Then he glanced back to see Bender still staring, and said awkwardly:

"It's the shits, huh?" Bender glared at him and Brian uttered an uncomfortable laugh before turning back to face the front. Bender didn't look away for a moment, but when he did it was to crumple up his essay paper and throw it across the room, right in the middle of Andrew's and Claire's heads. The two populars acknowledged it but ignored Bender. That is, until Bender started 'singing' the musical beginning of a song, "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah…nah, nah, nah…"

Then Claire finally said to herself, "I can't believe this is happening to me."

Bender stopped singing, just as Maddison said under her breathe, "Spoilt bitch." Bender grinned at her, then said loudly as though coming to a revelation.

"Oh shit! What're we s'pposed to do if we hafta take a piss?"

"Please…" Claire muttered, disgusted.

"If you gotta go…" The sound of Bender unzipping his pants sound loudly throughout the room, and everyone turned to look at him. Maddison smirked as she realised he was faking it.

"…You gotta go!" he finished.

Even more disgusted, Claire said, "Oh my god!"

"You, you're not urinating in here man!" Andrew shouted loudly, not believing that anyone could really do that.

"Don't talk! Don't talk!" Bender shouted, "It makes it crawl back up!"

"You whip it out and you're dead before the first drop hits the floor!" Andrew threatened, and turned back around before he saw something he couldn't un-see.

Bender gasped mockingly. "You're pretty scary when you get angry…grrr!" The he turned to Brian and said, "Hey Homeboy…" Brian pointed at himself with his pen. "…Why don't go close that door. We'll get the prom queen – Impregnated. Leave her to me." He gestured towards Maddison and looked back for a second, winking suggestively.

"Hey!" Andrew protested, while Maddison just blew an air-kiss in Benders direction. "Hey," he repeated.

"What?" Bender asked, moving his gaze to stare at him.

"If I lose my temper, you're totalled man!" Maddison giggled at his empty threat.

"Totally?" She asked with a fake pout.

"Totally!"

"Well hey Sporto!" Bender said. "What'd you do to get in here? Forget to wash your Jock?"

Brian spoke up nervously. "Uhh, Excuse me fellas? I think we should just write our papers…"

"Look," Andrew said, ignoring Brian, "just because you and your girlfriend live in here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass...so knock it off!"

Bender mockingly registered pain on his face, and grabbed Maddison's hand.

"It's a free country..." He said, "And my _girlfriend _doesn't seem to mind. In fact my _girlfriend _seems to find it funny." He was right, given she had a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughs.

Claire looked to Andrew and said, "He's just doing it to get a rise out of you! Just ignore him..."

"Sweets..." Bender said to her, staring blankly, "you couldn't ignore me if you tried!"

Claire rolled her eyes.

"So…so!" Bender shouted to the both of them, and asked, "Are you guys like boyfriend/girl-friend?" a beat passed. "Steady dates?"

There was another beat, and Maddison asked, "Lo-vers?"

"Come on Sporto, level with me," Bender said, then asked slyly, "Do you slip her the hot...beef...injection?"

While Maddie and the others struggled to hold their laughter, Claire and Andrew turned to face Bender, both furious.

Claire screamed angrily, "Go to hell!"

Andrew screamed, "Enough!"

"Hey!" They heard Vernon shout from his office. "What's going on in there?" Everyone remained silent, and Vernon stayed away. They all looked at each other, until Andrew turned away from Bender.

"Scumbag!" Andrew said to himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Bender stood up and walked over to the railing, sitting on it as though he had done so a million times. The rest of the group stared up at him, waiting to see what he would do next.

"What do you say we close that door?" Bender asked them, though it was obvious he would do it even if they were against it. "We can't have any kind of party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds."

"Well, you know the door's s'posed to stay open..." Brian said nervously.

"So what?" Bender asked him, cocking an eyebrow in question.

"So why don't you just shut up!" Maddison turned to glare at Andrew, furious at his words, but he just continued. "There's five other people in here you know..."

"God, you can count. See!" Bender shouted as though he were amazed. "I knew you had to be smart to be a...a wrestler."

"Who the hell are you to judge anybody anyway?" Andrew asked.

"Really..." Claire sighed.

"You know, Bender...you don't even count," Andrew continued. "I mean if you disappeared forever it wouldn't make any difference. You may as well not even exist at this school."

Bender was probably upset at this, but he did such a good job at hiding it only she seemed to notice. So, seething with anger, Maddison got to her feet, sauntered up to Andrew's side, and grabbed his face.

"Listen here, mate," she said, and as it always did when she was angry, her Australian accent came through. "You better think about who's talking before you go and say something like that. So why don't ya go put a condom over your head, 'cause if ya gonna be a dick, you might as well dress like one."

She pushed his face away, but he still replied indigently, "But I'm right!"

"Well..." Bender said with mock sadness, though a smile was still fighting its way onto his face at her words. "I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team."

Andrew and Claire looked at each other and laughed.

"Maybe the prep club too!" Bender said, looking at Claire. "Student council..."

"No, they wouldn't take you," Andrew said stupidly.

"I'm hurt," Bender said, and held a hand to his chest as though he were wounded.

"You know why guys like you knock everything..."

To himself, Bender muttered, "Oh, this should be stunning..."

"…It's 'cause you're afraid."

With mock enthusiasm, Bender exclaimed, "Oh, God! You ritchies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy in activities!"

"You're a big coward!" Claire continued.

Brian, who was feeling slightly left out, said to no one in particular, "I'm in the math club..."

"See you're afraid that they won't take you," Claire went on, and Maddison wondered when she would ever shut up. "You don't belong so you just have to dump all over it..."

"Well...it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes...now would it?" Bender asked her slowly.

"Well you wouldn't know..." Claire said snidely. "You don't even know any of us."

"Well, I don't know any lepers either, but I'm not gonna run out and join one of their fucking clubs."

Andrew looked around, and protested, "Hey let's watch the mouth, huh?"

It was obvious Brian again felt the need to contribute. "I'm in the physics club too..." He said, adding on to his last comment. Maddison turned around to look at him, and perplexedly asked, "What are you babbling about?"

"Well, what I said was...I'm in the math club, the Latin club and the physics club...physics club." She stared at him, before nodding to Claire.

"Hey...Cherry," she said slowly, "...do you belong to the physics club?"

Claire scoffed as though that were beneath her. "That's an academic club..."

"So?" Bender and Maddison spoke together.

"So...academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs."

"Oh, but to dorks like him..." Bender pointed to Brian. "...they are…" He looked over at the kid, and asked, "What do you guys do in your club?"

He stumbled completely through the answer, so quiet they barely heard him. "In physics, um, we ah, we talk about physics...about properties of physics."

Maddison grinned slyly at him, and said, "So it's sorta social...demented and sad, but social," The grin fell away and she asked in mock sadness, "Right?"

"Yeah, well, I guess you could consider it a social situation. I mean there are other children in my club and uh, at the end of the year we have, um, you know, a big banquet, at the, uh, at the Hilton."

Bender looked at him. "You load up, you party..."

"Well, no, we get dressed up..." Brian tried to say then, clarified, "I mean, but, we don't...we don't get high."

At this comment, Claire said to Bender, "Only burners like you and her get high..." She gestured back to Maddison, who threw her hands up in mock defeat.

"How'd you know?" she asked, leaning forwards on the desk with a wild glint in her eyes.

"And, uh, I didn't have any shoes. So I had to borrow my dad's. It was kinda weird 'cause my mum doesn't like me to wear other people's shoes." The rest of the group slowly turned to look at Brian as he went on.

"And, uh, my cousin Kent...my cousin Kendall from, uh, Indiana... He got high once and you know, he started eating like really weird foods. And uh, and then he just felt like he didn't belong anywhere. You know, kinda like, you know "Twilight Zone" kinda."

Claire laughed and said to Bender and Maddison, "Sounds like you..."

"Look, you guys keep up your talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here..." Andrew said as though it were clear as day. "I got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads..."

Maddison glared at him and commented sarcastically, "Oh and wouldn't that be a bite..."

Bender let out a moan of fake agony, and discreetly threw a wink at Maddison.

"Missing a whole wrestling meet!" Bender finished for her.

"Well you wouldn't know anything about it, faggot!" Andrew shouted, glaring furiously at the other boy. "You never competed in your whole life!"

Bender, with mock hurt, said sadly,

"Oh, I know...I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys that roll around on the floor with other guys!"

"Ahhh...you'd never miss it," Andrew scoffed, "You don't have any goals."

"Oh, but I do!" Bender said excitedly, though the sarcasm was barely disguised in his voice.

"Yeah?" Andrew asked.

"I wanna be just-like-you!" Bender shouted. "I figure all I need's a lobotomy and some tights!" And at that, Brian became interested.

"You wear tights?" The blonde boy asked, smirking at the image.

Andrew didn't look at anyone as he answered, "No I don't wear tights, I wear the required uniform..."

Maddison grinned at this and said along with Brian, "Tights..."

And on defence, Andrew turned to glare at Maddison (who had said it the loudest) and shouted.

"Shut up!"

Bender glared furiously at Andrew for his comment while Maddison threw up her hands in surrender. It looked as though Bender was about to pummel the guy into the ground, but he didn't get the chance. They could hear Vernon moving around out in the hall so Bender quickly came and sat in the chair between Claire and Andrew. He folded his hands on the table.

Vernon went back into his office, and the noise fell down. Bender smirked and got up, walking towards the double doors that separated the library from the hallway.

"You know there's not s'posed to be any monkey business!" Brian called after him, but Bender ignored him for a moment before he turned and pointed.

In a stern voice, he said to him, "Young man...have you finished your paper?"

Bender turned back away and went to the door, before sticking his head out and looking around the corner cautiously. Then he reached up to the bolt on the door and started unscrewing a few of the screws.

"What are you gonna do?" Claire called to him, though it was fairly obvious.

"Drop dead, I hope!" Andrew called out.

Brian looked up and finally noticed that Bender was messing with the door to the library.

"Bender, that's, that's school property there..." He tried to say, but Bender ignored him. "You know, it doesn't belong to us. It's something not to be toyed with."

The door slammed shut, and Bender ran back to his seat, grabbing Maddison's hand to drag her along while he shoved the screws into her hand and said.

"You want to hide these for me, sweets?" She just smirked and shoved them into her bra, giving him a tasty view of her cleavage at the same time. He gulped at that before leaning on the desk with a wild look.

"That's very funny, come on, fix it!" Andrew shouted back to them, turning in his chair.

"You should really fix that!" Brian agreed.

"Am I a genius?" Bender asked them, and Andrew replied with the comment.

"No, you're an asshole!"

"What a funny guy!" Maddison shouted with mock glee.

"Fix the door Bender!" Andrew shouted, ignoring her.

"Everyone just shhh!" Bender said suddenly, and to his surprise they did. "I've been here before, I know what I'm doing!"

"No!" Andrew finally shouted. "Fix the door, get up there and fix it!"

Bender shouted finally with anger, "Shut up!"

There was silence for only a few moments before Vernon's voice echoed through the hall.

"God damnit!" He opened the door and stormed in, glaring at the lot of them. "WHY IS THAT DOOR CLOSED?"

For a few seconds no one said a word, they just stared at Vernon as though he were losing his head.

"Why is that door closed?" Vernon repeated, and pointed at it as though they had no idea what he was talking about.

"How're we s'posed to know?" Bender said smartly, "We're not s'posed to move, right?"

Vernon turned to Claire, and obviously seeing her as the weakest link, asked, "Why?"

Bender grimaced, waiting for her to rat him out, and was completely surprised when she said, "We were just sitting here, like we were s'posed to..."

Vernon turned from her to Bender and repeated once more, "Who closed that door?"

"I think a screw fell out of it..." Bender said slowly.

"It just closed, sir..." Andrew added.

Vernon looked at Allison in the back, and asked her as though he was actually expecting an answer, "Who?"

Allison let out a squeak and slammed her face onto the table, hiding in her jacket hood.

"She doesn't talk, sir..." Maddison said slowly, defiantly meeting his gaze.

Vernon ignored her and said to Bender.

"Give me that screw..."

"I don't have it..."

Maddison grinned and called out, "Would you be surprised if it was between my bosom?" Vernon ignored her, thinking she was lying, while Bender just struggled to hide his smirk.

"You want me to yank you outta that seat and shake it out of you?" Vernon asked, and Bender lowered his head in fake shame.

"I don't have it..." Bender said. "Screws fall out all of the time, the world's an imperfect place..."

"Give it to me, Bender..." Vernon said softly.

"Excuse me, sir," Claire said, drawing the teacher's attention for a few moments. "Why would anybody want to steal a screw?"

Vernon turned to Claire and said threateningly, "Watch it, young lady..." The he went over to the door and tried to hold it open by putting a folding chair in front of it.

"The door's way too heavy, sir," Bender called out, and his response was proven when the door slammed shut despite the chair.

"God damnit!" Vernon shouted once more, and the group laughed. Vernon opened the door again and came back through, pointing to Andrew.

"Andrew Clark...get up here. Come on, front and center, let's go." The athlete got to his feet and walked over to the teacher.

"Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up?" Maddison shouted out after them. "If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy!"

Vernon and Andrew were attempting to move the steel magazine rack in front of the door, but they were both looking quite uncoordinated. Maddison giggled, and Bender smirked, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"Okay, now, watch the magazines!" Vernon shouted, and Andrew jumped forwards to stop them from falling.

"It's out of my hands..." Bender sighed.

They finally got it into the doorway and it blocked the entire door.

"That's very clever sir, but what if there's a fire?" Bender shouted out to Vernon. "I think violating fire codes and endangering the lives of children would be unwise at this juncture in your career, sir." He gestured around to Allison and Brian as children while he spoke.

Vernon appeared to be thinking about it, because not a few seconds later he turned to Andrew, and shouted:

"Alright, what are you doing with this? Get this outta here for God's sake! What's the matter with you? Come on!"

Brian spoke up at that, and said smartly, "You know the school comes equipped with fire exits at either end of the library." Maddison groaned as he pointed the doors out, while Bender just glared at him.

Bender said angrily but quietly so the teacher wouldn't hear, "Show Dick some respect!"

Andrew and Vernon came back into the main section of the library, Andrew taking his seat back at the front of the tables while Vernon stood before them.

To Andrew, even though he had already done so, Vernon shouted, "Let's go...go! Get back into your seat. I expected a little more from a varsity letterman!" Then he turned to Bender and shouted, "You're not fooling anybody, Bender! The next screw that falls out is gonna be you!"

Vernon turned to leave, but stopped as Bender muttered something under his breathe, which only Maddison caught given her proximity to him. Vernon spun in his tracks and faced Bender again.

"What was that?" He asked murderously, and Bender repeated louder.

"Eat. My. Shorts!"

"You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister!" Vernon roared.

"Oh, Christ..."

"You just bought one more right there!"

"Well, I'm free the Saturday after that...beyond that, I'm gonna have to check my calendar!"

"Good! 'Cause it's gonna be filled, we'll keep goin'! You want another one? Say the word, just say the word! Instead of going to prison, you'll come here! Are you through?"

"No!" Maddison grinned at his stubbornness, and remembered when she had done just the same. Looked like they would be spending the next few weeks together.

"I'm doing society a favour!"

"So?"

"That's another one, right now! I've got you for the rest of your natural born life if you don't watch your step! You want another one?"

"Yes!"

"You got it! You got another one, right there! That's another one pal!"

Claire, slightly worried, shouted at Bender, "Cut it out!" then mouthed 'stop' as Bender glanced at her.

"You through?" Vernon asked Bender lightly.

"Not even close, bud!" Bender shouted.

"Good!" Vernon bellowed. "You got one more, right there!"

Bender stared at him. "Do you really think I give a shit?"

"Another..."

Bender glared at him.

"You through?" Vernon asked.

"How many is that?" Bender responded with a question of his own.

"That's seven including the one when we first came in and you asked Mr. Vernon here whether Barry Manilow knew that he raided his closet," Brian said.

And to Bender Vernon said, "Now it's eight..." The he added to Brian, "You stay out of it!"

"Excuse me, sir, it's seven!" Brian added.

"Shut up, Peewee!" Vernon shouted, then said to Bender, "You're mine Bender...for two months I gotcha! I gotcha!"

"What can I say?" Bender said sarcastically. "I'm thrilled!"

"Oh, I'm sure that's exactly what you want these people to believe. You and your little girlfriend." Vernon sneered at Maddison as though she were dirt, but she just cocked an eyebrow, waiting for him to go on. "You know something, Bender? You both ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with yourself and a little less time trying to impress people. You might be better off."

To everyone he called out.

"Alright, that's it! I'm going to be right outside those doors. The next time I hafta come in here...I'm cracking skulls!" Maddison couldn't quite stop herself from mouthing along with him "I'm cracking skulls" and when she looked over it appeared Bender had done the same thing.

Vernon left and closed the door, just as Bender shouted after him:

"Fuck you!"


	3. Chapter 3

Maddison looked up at the clock to see it was only a quarter to eight, and instead of focusing on how much time there was left before she could leave, she looked on at Bender as he lit his show on fire, and this his cigarette from the flame. He took a long drag, before handing it off to Maddison. She breathed the smoke in, then started blowing smoke rings threw the room, making each one smaller than the last.

Claire was thinking, Brian was playing with his balls, and Andrew was playing with the strings on his sweatshirt. Allison was wrapping a string around her finger, making it turn purple. Bender put the flames on his shoe out, then started playing air guitar, while Maddison tapped a rhythm on the desk with his pencil.

Andrew moved on from his sweater to playing paper football. He cheered silently, pretending to get a goal. Allison shook dandruff from her hair onto her picture. Maddison watched Bender, her head leaning on her fist, and her eyes dropping heavily…

"Wake up!" Maddison woke immediately, though didn't move a single muscle. Maybe, if she stayed still for long enough, he would leave.

Then the teacher said, "Who has to go to the lavatory?" and she couldn't deny the needs of her bladder any longer. She raised her hand into the air, along with everyone else.

o.O

Maddison sat up on the railing, watching Andrew stretch with his leg propped up beside her. Bender was tearing pages out of a book from behind her, tossing them around.

"That's real intelligent," Andrew commented as a piece of paper fell onto his arm.

"You're right..." Bender sighed. "It's wrong to destroy literature..." He continued to tear pages out. "It's such fun to read...and, Molet really pumps my nads!"

"Mol-yare," Claire corrected him lightly.

"I love his work," Brian threw in, though nobody really noticed but Bender, who threw the rest of the pages at him. To replace it, he picked up the card catalogue and began to move the cards around in the wrong order.

"Big deal...nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy…" Bender said.

"Speak for yourself..." Andrew protested, and Bender looked at him, disgusted.

"Do you think I'd speak for you? I don't even know your language!"

Andrew turned to Claire, ignoring him, and asked, "Hey, you grounded tonight?" She shrugged in response.

"I don't know, my mom said I was but my dad told me to just blow her off."

"Big party at Stubbies, parents are in Europe," he told her, "Should be pretty wild..."

"Yeah?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, can you go?"

Claire sighed and said, "I doubt it..."

"How come?"

"Well 'cause if I do what my mother tells me not to do, it's because my father says it's okay. There's like this whole big monster deal, it's endless and it's a total drag. It's like any minute...divorce..."

"Who do you like better?" Bender asked suddenly.

"What?" Claire asked, frowning at him in confusion.

"You like your old man better than your mom?" Maddison explained, jumping down from the railing to approach her.

"They're both strict," Claire answered as though that answered their question.

"No, I mean, if you had to choose between them."

"I dunno," Claire said, then looked up at them. "I'd probably go live with my brother. I mean, I don't think either one of them gives a shit about me...it's like they use me just to get back at each other."

"Oh poor baby," Maddison mocked sadly with a fake pout.

Suddenly, from the back of the room, Allison shouted out, "Ha!"

Everyone looked at her, shocked as she blew her hair out of her eyes and grinned.

"Shut up!" Claire shouted back, clearly upset.

"You're just feeling sorry for yourself..." Andrew commented lightly, not looking at her as she spoke.

"Yeah, well if I didn't nobody else would," Claire shot back, slightly hurt.

"Aw...you're breaking my heart..." Andrew said sarcastically.

"Sporto..." Bender said to him.

Andrew turned to glare at him. "What?"

Bender jumped down and went next to him. "You get along with your parents?" he asked.

"Well if I say yes, I'm an idiot, right?" He asked.

"You're an idiot anyway..." Maddison said to him, coming up on his other side. "But if you say you get along with your parents well you're a liar too!"

Andrew glared at her as Bender nodded, chuckling slightly as he turned and walked away. But Andrew followed and pushed him.

"You know something, man..." he said to him. "If we weren't in school right now, I'd waste you!"

Bender pointed his middle finger at the floor, staring him in the eye as he said, "Can you hear this? Want me to turn it up?" He flipped his hand around so he was giving Andrew the bird, and Brian, sensing a fight, moved over to place a hand on each of the guy's shoulders.

"Hey fellas, I mean..." He started nervously, but Andrew just pushed him away. But Brian continued anyway, "...I don't like my parents either, I don't...I don't get along with them...their idea of parental compassion is just, you know, wacko!"

Bender turned to Brian and started with a strong glare

"Dork..."

"Yeah?" Brian answered.

"You are a parent's wet dream, okay?" Bender started walking away, towards Maddison who had moved to sit on the last row of desks, when Brian called out.

"Well that's a problem!"

Bender turned back to him. "Look, I can see you getting all bunged up for them making you wear these kinda clothes. But face it, you're a Neo-Maxi-Zoom-Dweebie! What would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"

"Why do you have to insult everybody?" Andrew asked him disapprovingly. Bender turned his look from Brian to him, while Maddison, Claire and Allison looked on.

"I'm being honest, asshole!" Bender shouted. "I would expect you...to know the difference!"

"Yeah well, he's gotta name!" Andrew protested.

"Yeah?" Bender asked mockingly.

"Yeah," To Brian he asked, "What's your name?"

"Brian..."

"See..." Andrew said smugly.

Bender grinned sadly at Brian and said, strangely sincere, "My condolences..." The he walked away.

But it wasn't over yet. Claire called out to Bender as though she were fully expecting an answer, "What's your name?"

"What's yours?" Bender responded.

"Claire..."

Bender walked around the desks until he was standing in front of her, and from there he said slowly, "Ka-Laire?"

"Claire...it's a family name!" She defended herself, crossing her arms as she waited for an insult.

"Nooo...It's a fat girl's name!" She wasn't disappointed.

Claire sniffed lightly, and said as though she didn't care, "Well thank you..."

"You're welcome..." Bender answered.

There was silence for a few moments before she spoke again, "I'm not fat!"

"Well not at present but I could see you really pushing maximum density!" Bender said, hugely exaggerating his concern. "You see, I'm not sure if you know this...but there are two kinds of fat people. There's fat people that were born to be fat, and then there's fat people that were once thin but they became fat...so when you look at them you can sorta see that thin person inside! You see, you're gonna get married, you're gonna squeeze out a few puppies and then, uh..."

He mimed becoming fat, making noises, much to her disgust.

Claire lazily gave him the finger, clearly not used to it given a rich snotty girl like her typically wouldn't.

"Oh..." Bender gasped, "Obscene finger gestures from such a pristine girl!"

Claire resentfully looked down, not able to meet his gaze, and said, "I'm not that pristine!"

Bender bent down closer to her, and asked simply, "Are you a virgin?" A beat passed before he added, "I'll bet you a million dollars that you are! Let's end the suspense! Is it gonna be...a white wedding?

"Why don't you just shut up?" Claire said as though it didn't matter, but it was quite obvious to everyone else that it did.

"Have you ever kissed a boy on the mouth?" Bender continued. "Have you ever been felt up? Over the bra, under the blouse, shoes off...hoping to God your parents don't walk in?"

It was clear that Claire was becoming upset, though her voice sounded nothing but disgusted when she asked, "Do you want me to puke?"

And without really knowing why, Maddison stepped forwards, feeling the need to defend the girl and her private business.

"What about you Bender?" she asked him, stepping up with her hands on her hips. He turned to look at her in surprise, expecting her to be the last person to defend Claire. She stepped even closer, and asked seductively, "Ever had a girl…run her hands down your chest, getting even closer and closer to your…" she ran once finger done the middle of his chest, getting even closer to his pants as she watched him gulp and glance away from her face.

"…No shirt, jeans unzipped, hoping to god the _Janitor _doesn't walk in. And you feel yourself getting ha-" He cut her off, going on with his own description of her and Claire being felt up.

"Over the panties, no bra, blouse unbuttoned, Calvin's in a ball on the front seat past eleven on a school night?" He smirked as her glare grew even more ferocious.

"Leave them alone!" Andrews shout brought Bender's attention quite easily. The Criminal slowly stood to face the athlete, who shouted again, "I said leave them alone!"

Bender looked at him with a blank expression, and asked quietly, "You gonna make me?"

"Yeah..." Bender walked over to where Andrew was standing, a smirk on his face, and said:

"You and how many of your friends?"

"Just me, just you and me," Andrew responded, feeling quite confident. "Two hits. Me hitting you, you hitting the floor! Anytime you're ready, pal!"

Bender went to tap him on the check, but Andrew, expecting more, got Bender down on the ground with a wrestling move. Bender didn't even try go get up.

"I don't wanna get into to this with you man..." Bender's muffled voice reached their ears, and not soon later Andrew let him up, standing up straight.

"Why not?" he asked him, as Bender walked backwards down the aisle.

"'Cause I'd kill you...It's real simple. I'd kill you and your fucking parents would sue me and it would be a big mess and I don't care enough about you to bother."

"Chicken shit..." Andrew turned and walked easily away, going to sit back down at his chair. But Maddison watched as Bender took a switch blade out of his pocket and flicked it open, before stabbing it into a chair.

"Let's end this right now," Andrew said strongly, "You don't talk to them...you don't look at them and you don't even think about them! You understand me?" Maddison was just about getting ready to protest to this. She really didn't give a fuck if Bender spoke to her at all. He was the once keeping this day interesting.

"I'm trying to help them!" Bender said indignantly, gesturing with his hand to the two girls.

But at that point the janitor, Carl, came into the room.

"Brian, how you doing?" He asked, coming out of the room from which he had just emptied a bin.

Bender glanced from Brian to Carl, smirking, and asked, "Your dad works here?"

Brian blushed, his cheeks flaming red in embarrassment. But that was forgotten when Bender asked the Janitor.

"Uh, Carl?"

"What?"

"Can I ask you a question?" Bender asked, pretending to act sheepish.

"Sure..." Carl said slowly, not quite knowing where this was going.

Bender looked up at him, and asked, "How does one become a janitor?"

Carl frowned at him. "You wanna be a janitor?"

"No I just wanna know how one becomes a janitor because Andrew here, is very interested in pursuing a career in the custodial arts..." Maddison and Brian coughed to cover their laughs, while Andrew just clenched his fists in annoyance.

"Oh, really?" Carl asked sceptically, realising the joke. "You guys think I'm just some untouchable peasant? Peon? Huh? Maybe so, but following a broom around after shitheads like you for the past eight years I've learned a couple of things...I look through your letters, I look through your lockers...I listen to your conversations, you don't know that but I do...I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends. By the way, that clock's twenty minutes fast!"

Everyone groaned loudly, save Bender, who just smiled.

"Shit!" Andrew growled. Carl left, and soon after that, they were all once more completely bored.

That is, until Bender started to whistle a marching tune and everybody joined in, whistling along easily. Then the door slammed open, and everyone fell silent, save Bender who continued to sing Beethoven's 5t

"All right girls, that's thirty minutes for lunch..." Vernon told them brightly.

"Here?" Andrew asked him.

"Here..."

Andrew looked up at him, bravely meeting his gaze, "Well I think the cafeteria would be a more suitable place for us to eat lunch in, sir!"

"Well, I don't care what you think, Andrew!"

"Uh, Dick?" Bender said, looking up over at Vernon, before 'correcting' himself. "Excuse me, Rich...will milk be made available to us?"

"We're extremely thirsty sir..." Andrew added.

"I have a very low tolerance for dehydration," Claire lied.

Maddison nodded along, calling out, "I've seen her dehydrate sir, it's pretty gross."

Bender stood, volunteering himself as he said, "Relax, Mags and I'll get it!" Maddison followed suit, hoping to get out of there, but Vernon shock his head.

"Ah, ah, ah grab some wood there, bub!" Bender grinned at this, and sat back down in his spot by Maddison.

"What do you think, I was born yesterday?" Vernon continued. "You think I'm gonna have you roaming these halls?" He pointed at Andrew then Allison. "You! And you! Hey! What's her name? Wake her! Wake her up! Come on, on your feet missy! Let's go! This is no rest home!"

Allison got to her feet, following Vernon back to the front.

"There's a soft drink machine in the teacher's lounge. Let's go!"

The moment the others disappeared through the door, Maddison felt herself being dragged by the hand over to a bunch of books on a small platform. Claire and Brian followed as Bender sat her down in front of him, and the four of them all waited, doing nothing, for the cokes.

That is, until Bender found a book that 'interested' him. "Claire...you wanna see a picture of a guy with Elephantitus of the nuts? It's pretty tasty..." Maddison almost gagged a she saw the picture, and wrinkled her nose as she turned away, unconsciously burying her face in Bender's jacket.

"No thank you..." Claire said, noticing Maddison's reaction and not wanting to put herself through that.

Bender looked up from Maddison, a small smile on his face, and asked, "How do you think he rides a bike?"

Claire rolled her eyes and turned away in disgust, but Bender wasn't done yet.

"Oh, Claire...would you ever consider dating a guy like this?" he asked.

"Can't you just leave me alone?" Claire sighed.

"I mean if he had a great personality and was a good dancer and had a cool car...Although you'd probably have to ride in the back seat 'cause his nuts would ride shotgun." Despite herself, Maddison laughed, looking back up though she kept her eyes closed.

"You know what I wish I was doing?" Claire asked them, ignoring Bender and his comment.

"Op, watch what you say, Brian here is a cherry," Maddison said quickly, as though she were really concerned.

"A cherry?" Brian asked.

"I wish I was on a plane to France." Maddison looked over to the girl and smirked, before commenting brightly.

"Nah, I'd rather go to London, or Ireland. The guys there actually speak English but they still have a sexy accent." Claire giggled at that, her red hair falling into her face. Bender frowned at the other brown-haired girl, and whispered so quietly into her ear even she almost didn't hear.

"_Mine…"_

Before she could respond Brian spoke up, staring at her sadly, "I'm not a cherry."

Bender looked up from Maddison and asked with raised eyebrows, "When have you ever gotten laid?"

"I've laid, lotsa times!" Maddison found this quite hard to believe, and it obvious Bender did too because he challenged him.

"Name one!"

"She lives in Canada, met her at Niagara Falls," Brian said, coming up with a quick lie that fooled no-one. "You wouldn't know her."

Maddison scoffed lightly and asked, "Ever laid anyone around here."

Brian shushed Bender and Maddison and pointed at Claire, whose back was turned. Bender looked from him to Claire and shouted:

"Oh, you and Claire, did it!" Maddison giggled at the horror on Brian's face.

Claire spun around and glared, furious, at Brian. "What are you talking about?" She demanded.

"Nothin', nothin!" Brian shouted, then said to Bender, "Let's just drop it, we'll talk about it later!"

"No!" Claire protested. "Drop what, what're you talking about?"

"Well, Brian's trying to tell me that in addition to the number of girls in the Niagara Falls area, that presently you and he are, riding the hobby horse!"

Claire glared at Brian, disgusted, and shouted, "Little pig!"

"No I'm not! I'm not!" Brian protested. "Maggie said I was a cherry and I said I wasn't, that's it, that's all that was said!"

"Well then what were you motioning to Claire for?" Maddison asked.

"You know I don't appreciate this very much, Brian," Claire said sadly, though she could sense that he didn't mean it.

"He is lying!" Brian shouted defensively, wondering how on earth he managed to get himself into this mess.

"Oh you weren't motioning to Claire?" Bender asked him with raised eyebrows, while he waited with Maddison to see what he would come up with next.

"You know he's lying, right?" Brian asked Claire, ignoring Bender completely.

"Were you or were you not motioning to Claire?" Maddison asked him simply, her arms crossed over her chest.

Brian sighed and admitted sheepishly, "Yeah, but it was only...was only because I didn't want her to know that I was a virgin, okay?"

Bender and Maddison just stared at him.

"Excuse me for being a virgin, I'm sorry..." Brian continued, but Claire just laughed, coming forwards to look at him.

"Why didn't you want me to know you were a virgin?" She asked him with a soft smile, realising and relating to his embarrassment.

Brian gulped, looking away from her, and said, "Because it's personal business, it's my personal, private business."

"Well Brian, it doesn't sound like you're doing any business..." Maddison grinned at Bender's comment, and elbowed him lightly in the ribs at his lack of tact.

"I think it's okay for a guy to be a virgin..." Claire said, smiling softly at Brian as he looked up in hope. But Bender looked surprised at this, and he stared at Claire with wide eyes.

"You do?" Brian asked her, and Claire smiled with a nod.


	4. Chapter 4

Andrew and Allison got back soon after that, throwing cokes around the room to everyone to have with their lunch. Claire began to take hers out of a small shopping bag, and Bender and Maddison watched her from behind.

"What's in there?" Bender asked, trying to look over her shoulder to get a glimpse. Claire looked back at him, and the look on her face clearly started that she thought he was an idiot.

"Guess, where's your lunch?" She said, ignoring his question for the moment. Bender just leant back and pulled Maddison over to his side.

"Maddison's wearing it..."

Claire grimaced at his implication. "You're nauseating..." She said, while Maddison just laughed and played along, allowing him to sling his arm around her shoulder and pull her so she was nuzzled against his side.

With his other hand, Bender grabbed a Coke and tossed it over to Allison, who caught it without even looking up. Bender then watched as Claire set up a sushi platter.

"What's that?" He asked, and speaking at the same time Maddison and Claire responded.

"Sushi..."

"Su-shi?" Bender repeated, curling his lip up as though the word were foreign on his tongue.

"Rice, uh, raw fish and seaweed," Claire explained, but from the disgusted look on his face, Maddison could tell he wouldn't like it.

She was right, because he replied, "You won't accept a guys tongue in your mouth and you're gonna eat that?"

"Can I eat?" she asked him sarcastically, ignoring his comment.

"I don't know..." Bender sighed as though he felt sorry for her. "Give it a try..."

But their attention was diverted as they watched Andrew take a couple sandwiches out of his bag, a bag of potato chips, an apple, a banana, a bag of cookies and a carton of milk.

They ignored Allison as she opened her coke and it fizzed all over the table, from which she slurped it up then licked her fingers. But Andrew soon saw the looks on both Bender's and Maddison's faces, because he asked them defensively.

"What's your problem?" They ignored him, and turned to watch Allison as she opened her sandwich and threw the meat onto the sculpture behind her. Then she opened some Pixie sticks and poured the sugar onto both sides of the bread, briefly pouring some into her mouth for a moment. And next she added some Captain Crunch to the mixture before closing the sandwich and crunching it loudly.

Maddison and Bender turned back with a weirded-out look on their face, before Bender left for Brian and Maddison reached down for her own Corduroy bag. From inside she pulled out a simple Tupperware container with leftover spaghetti from the night before and a thermos of tea.

"I can read!" She suddenly heard Bender exclaim, and looked up as he continued. "PB & J with the crusts cut off...Well Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch, all the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr. Rogers?"

"Uh, no, Mr. Johnson..." Brian answered, not getting the joke.

Bender sighed, "Ahhh..." As Andrew and Claire smiled at each other. But Bender got back to his feet and moved off to the back tables, everyone's gaze following him.

"Here's my impression of life at big Bri's house..." he said presentively.

In a loud and friendly voice that was Brian's dad, he shouted, "Son!"

And In a kiddie voice as Brian, responded, "Yeah Dad?"

"How's your day, pal?" As Dad.

"Great Dad, how's yours?" As Brian.

"Super, say son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend?" As Dad.

"Great Dad, but I've got homework to do!" As Brian.

"That's alright son, you can do it, on the boat!" As Dad.

"Geee!" As Brian

"Dear, isn't our son swell?" As Dad.

In a quiet and motherly voice he said, "Yes Dear, isn't life swell?"

Bender mimed mother kissing father and then father kissing mother, before pretending to punch mother in the face. Maddison stopped smiling at this. Suddenly it didn't seem so funny anymore.

"Alright, what about your family?" Andrew called out stupidly, and Bender turned to him.

"Oh, mine?" he asked modestly, and all the others in the room could just tell that this was going to turn out bad.

"That's real easy!" Bender said, and pointed forwards.

As his father, he shouted, "Stupid, worthless, no good, God damned, freeloading, son of a bitch, retarded, bigmouth, know it all, asshole, jerk!"

As his mother, he shouted, "You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful."

Bender slammed his hand back to slap his invisible mother, and as his father continued, "Shut up bitch! Go fix me a turkey pot pie!"

Then as himself he shouted, "What about you Dad?"

"Fuck you!" As Dad.

"No, Dad, what about you?" As himself.

"Fuck you!"

"No, Dad, what about you?!" He yelled as himself.

"Fuck you!" He yelled as his father. He reached out and pretended he's his father hitting him, and it was at this point that Maddison looked away, tears surprisingly stinging his eyes. There was no way anyone could fake that.

"Is that for real?" Brian asked him softly, a look pf pity on his eyes that Bender didn't want.

"You wanna come over sometime?" Bender asked him roughly.

Then Andrew's arrogant, dickhead voice filled the room, sceptically calling out to Bender, "That's bullshit. It's all part of your image, I don't believe a word of it."

Bender actually looked hurt at this, surprised that anyone would think he could lie about this.

"You don't believe me?" he asked him, his voice just as level as always.

"No..." Andrew said, though he seemed hesitant now as doubt crept in.

"No?" Bender repeated.

"Did I stutter?" Andrew asked, and Maddison clenched her hands to keep from punching him in the face.

Bender came over to Andrew, bending right down by his side to roll up his right sleeve and reveal a circular shaped burn. Maddison could see it perfectly clear, and felt her arms tingle as she thought of her own unwilling imperfections…

"Do you believe this?" Bender asked. "Huh? It's about the size of a cigar...Do I stutter? You see, this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage."

Bender got up to walk away, calling over his shoulder to them:

"See I don't think that I need to sit here with you fuckin' dildos anymore!"

Bender walked over to a map table and threw all the maps on the floor, shouting in rage. Maddison flinched at his anger, watching as he climbed up on top of the table and then up to the second floor balcony.

She sat watching for a moment, before packing up her things. As she left, she turned to Andrew and started emotionlessly.

"That was a real dick move, asshole." Leaving with that, she slung her bag onto her back and walked to the bottom of the steps, climbing slowly and carefully up them till she reached Bender's side. He was leaning forwards, his legs dangling over the side with his face and arms through the metal wiring. She sat down beside him, not saying a word until he turned and glared at her, snapping:

"What do you want?"

She ignored his brutal tone, pushing the red-brown hair from her face. She pulled off her black-lace gloves, revealing a Brazalete tattoo wrapping around her wrist. She noticed his gaze flicker back and forth from it, and smiled. But it fell from her face as she grabbed his hand and brought it over to feel the inside of her wrist…

"We all have our scars," she whispered.

His eyes widened as he felt the puckered scars, crisscrossing over each other. At the time, they had been so deep it was life-threatening. His fingers softly stroked the one furthest from her hand, feeling but not seeing due to the tattoo covering them.

"Did you…" he started to ask her, but she shook her head, knowing what he was going to ask.

"No, I didn't do It," she said, and dove into the story she had never told anyone else. "It was my father. H-he, and my mother, they thought I was crazy, possessed, and they thought it was the only way. They held me down in the bathtub and…and, well, you can see. But my mum didn't get a chance. She chickened out once dad started."

Bender stared at her with wide eyes, and it was the closest she had seen him come to feeling sorry for anyone else. But she didn't want his pity. And she couldn't not finish her story.

"He didn't like that, my dad. And he was drunk. He wasn't quiet finished with me, but he still thought he had the time to cut my mums throat." She shuddered, and was surprised to feel a wetness roll down her cheek. "And once he had seen what he had done, he pulled a gun on himself. The Neighbours called the police. The Police found me, barely alive, and took me to hospital. I was out a few weeks later, got emancipated, and came here a few weeks later. That was last year."

She turned and finally met his gaze, not blinking at all as she waited for him to respond. He remained silent though staring at her, until she couldn't stand it anymore, and she looked away, feeling the pity in his eyes.

"He deserved it," she said finally. "Mum didn't. She'd never laid a hand on me before this."

Bender stared at her for a few seconds, before he realised he was still stroking her wrist. He pulled his hand away, but ended up grabbing on too her other. He found it hard to watch as tears curved silently down her cheeks, leaving small tracks for him to trace if he pleased.

"Sorry," she whispered after a few minutes, and with her other hand whipped away the marks on her face. She sniffled and gave a shaky laugh, before turning to him. "What about you?" she asked, sensing the question in his mind. "Are _you _okay?"

He nodded, brought his hands up to gently caress her face, and leant forwards, pressing his lips in a chaste kiss to hers. She froze in shock for a few seconds, not responding at all, until she started to feel him pull away, disappointment racing through him at her non-responsive lips. But, instead of letting him, she leant forwards herself and returned his kiss, running the tip of her tongue over his bottom lip. He suppressed a groan, and opened his mouth easily. But, too quickly for her, he thrust his tongue into her own mouth, hearing her stifled gasp of surprise as he grinned against her mouth, and kept her against him, one hand resting against her neck and the other on her hip. He gripped her tightly, but she didn't mind.

But she had to pull back not long after they had started, instead resting her forehead against his as they breathed heavily, in and out and in and out. The she realised the other reason for why she had come up here.

Pulling back slightly, she reached for her bag and pulled out the Spaghetti and Tea, opening the Tupperware container with her fork in the other hand. And from the corner of her eye, she saw Bender eyeing it hungrily. She wondered when the last time he ate was, and when she guessed at it being the previous night, she handed it over to him, grinning at the surprise and shimmer of sheepishness on his face.

"Enjoy," she told him with a laugh, and watched as he took a tentative bite of the spaghetti with the very edge of his teeth, as though expecting one bite to poison him. Though, after that first reluctant taste, he started wolfing it down. Maddison frowned at this, and her previous assumption changed to the previous morning. She never did see him eating in the cafeteria…

"Woah tiger, better slow down there," she said with raised eyebrows, though amusement played around her lips. He stopped, and swallowed loudly.

"Sorry," he said (she was surprised greatly at that), and put the food down. "I haven't eaten since Thursday night…" he admitted. Maddison felt her mouth fall open, reminding once again that she was very kissable, then closed it once more with a sigh. She pushed the half eaten spaghetti back at him, and after that the tea, and they didn't speak another word as she watched him with carefully disguised worry.


	5. Chapter 5

"Coffee...looks like they scrape it off the bottom of the Mississippi river. Everything's polluted, everything's polluted...the coffee."

Bender stuck his head out of the door of the library, watching as Vernon walked down the hallway to wash his hands and get some napkins. While he was distracted, Bender led everyone out of the room and down the other end of the hall, towards his locker.

Bender and Maddison walked side-by-side, their hands brushing together in that typical movie way, until he finally grabbed hers tightly, linking his fingers though hers. Claire, noticing this with a small smile, walked up to Bender's other side, leaving Brian, Andrew and Allison behind them.

To the both of them, Claire asked curiously, "How do you know where Vernon went?"

"We don't..." Bender answered easily, his eyes flickering to Maddison's grinning face.

"Well then, how do you know when he'll be back?"

Maddison leant around Bender to smirk excitedly at the other girl. "We don't...being bad feels pretty good, huh?"

Bender's locker wasn't far away, and they reached it with time to spare. The five of them all crowded around Bender and his locker, watching as he put in the code, pulled open the door, and a guillotine came rushing down, severing the front of a shoe.

"Slob!" Andrew exclaimed, disgusted at the rubbish and mess of the other man's locker. Maddison imagined Andrew's to be perfectly organised, not a book or pencil out of place.

"My maid's on vacation," Bender said sarcastically, reaching up to the top of his locker to pull out a grotty brown paper bag. And several layers later, he pulled out a bag of Marijuana.

"Drugs..." Brian muttered, staring in surprise at the bag, as though it would kill him even if he looked at it for too long.

"Screw that Bender!" Andrew gasped quietly "...put it back!"

Bender walked away, completely ignoring him, and pulled Maddison along back to the library, the others following after a few moments.

"Drugs..." Brian repeated again, to no one in particular. "The boy had marijuana."

Claire smiled sadly at them, before rushing off after them.

"That was marijuana!" Brian gasped, astounded that no-one really seemed to care.

"Shut up!" Andrew growled.

Andrew followed after the other three, leaving Brian to look at Allison. She was standing there with her mouth open.

"Do you approve of this?" Brian asked her, then turned and left. Allison watched him for a few moments, before stealing Bender's lock and running after them.

"We'll cross through the lab," Bender was saying, looking behind him for a brief second to check for Vernon. "…and then we'll double back."

Andrew glared at him from behind, "You better be right, if Vernon cuts us off it's your fault, asshole!"

From behind her, Maddison could hear Brian asking Claire, "What'd he say? Where're we going?"

Then they saw Vernon down one of the halls, and legged it, running through the hallways and each time appearing either behind him, in a hall linking with his, or somewhere of the sort like. But the man was so oblivious he didn't even notice them.

"Wait!" Bender suddenly ordered, stopping them in their tracks. "Wait, hold it! Hold it! We have to go through the cafeteria!"

"No, the activities hall," Andrew protested, and Maddison sighed at his inability to see the ingeniousness of Bender's idea. Vernon would never cross the Cafeteria…

"Hey man, you don't know what you're talking about!" Maddison stepped forwards, glaring with her hands on her hips.

"No you don't know what you're talking about!" He shouted back, sensing that she was on Bender's side. Maddison huffed, and flicked her hair onto her back.

Allison squeaked, and Andrew continued.

"Now we're through listening to you," he said, facing Bender once more. "We're going this way."

Maddison groaned in annoyance as Claire, Brian and Allison rushed after Andrew back the opposite way, and tugging Bender along, ran after them. She caught up easily enough, and together they ran around a corner. And, thanks to Andrew's _brilliant _idea, they ran into a hallway closed off by an iron gate.

"Shit!" Andrew yelled, and realised it was because of him that they were now stuck.

"Great idea Jag off!" Bender chastised, spinning on his heels to glare at Andrew and pull Maddison in closer at the same time.

Andrew glared back just as fiercely. "Fuck you!"

Maddison turned to glare at him, and shoved him back with her hands on his chest. "Fuck you!" she shouted herself. "Why didn't you listen to John?"

"We're dead!" Brian screamed.

Bender looked around at them for just a moment, thoughtful, before his gaze landed on Maddison. His mind was made up. "No, just me!"

"What do you mean?" Brian asked him.

"Get back to the library, keep your unit on this!" Bender shoved his bag of Marijuana down Brian's pants, then grabbed Maddison's face and shoved his lips against hers. Barely a second later he was running down the halls singing, "I wanna be an airborne ranger..."

Maddison watched him for a moment, her brain trying to figure out what the fuck just happened, before she finally snapped out of it, turned to the others, and ordered.

"Come on, run!" She led them back the other way, towards the cafeteria and through a few more hallways, until she saw the doors to the library, and shoved everyone in before her.

The rest of the group were all sitting back in their seats when Bender and Vernon entered. Vernon pushed Bender towards his table, and at the same time, Maddison, which he wasn't too reluctant about.

"Get your stuff, let's go!" Vernon shouted, then turned to everyone. "Mr. Wise guy here has taken it upon himself to go to the gymnasium. I'm sorry to inform you, you're going to be without his services for the rest of the day."

"B-O-O H-O-O!" Bender said lazily, as he collapsed into his chair to put his things together. Maddison quirked an eyebrow at him, and he leant forwards to capture her lips, not giving a single fuck that Vernon was watching.

"Everything's a big joke, huh Bender?" Vernon asked him as he pulled back. "The false alarm you pulled, Friday, false alarms are really funny, aren't they...What if your home, what if your family..." A beat passed as he thought of something, "...what if your dope was on fire?"

Bender smirked at that, and answered honestly, "Impossible, sir...It's in Johnson's underwear..."

Andrew laughed, but Maddison was smart enough to cover hers up with a cough. Good thing too, because Vernon immediately turned on Andrew and asked.

"You think he's funny? You think this is cute? You think he's bitchin', is that it? Lemme tell you something. Look at him, he's a bum." Vernon stood up straight, and said to everybody. "You wanna see something funny? You go visit John Bender in five years! You'll see how God damned funny he is!"

Fury burned in both Bender's and Maddison's eyes, and the girl would have gotten to her feet to come back with a witty retort had Bender not discreetly placed a hand on her thigh, keeping her grounded. She huffed and crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair.

"What's the matter, John?" Vernon asked with a fake pout, walking up to him so their faces were only a few inches apart. "You gonna cry? Let's go..."

He grabbed Bender's shoulder and went to pull him up, but Bender lashed out, smacking his arms easily away as he shouted.

"Hey keep your fuckin' hands off me! I expect better manners from you, Dick!" Bender walked forwards down the aisle, and slowly took something out of his pocket to throw onto Andrew's. "For better hallway vision," Bender said, pointing at the sunglasses, before leaving and pushing everything over in his wake.

Nobody spoke after Bender left, and the silence was quite noticeable as they started shifting in their seats. It seemed that they relied more on Bender then they thought to actually talk to each other. So making an effort, Maddison turned to Brian and opened her mouth to spe-

"OH SHIT!"

Everyone whipped around to stare as Bender walked smoothly down the stairs. He stopped to look at them, then said simply.

"I forgot my pencil..."

Then they all froze as Vernon's voice echoed through the hallway. "God damnit! What in God's name is going on in here?"

Bender dived under Maddison's desk, scrabbling to get his feet hidden in time before Vernon entered.

"What was that ruckus?" He asked them, glaring accusingly at each one of them as he waited for answers.

"Uh, what ruckus?" Andrew asked with a furrowed brow.

"I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus!"

"Could you describe the ruckus, sir?" Brian said, staring at him as though he were really interested in the subject.

Vernon pointed at him, seething. "Watch your tongue young man, watch it!"

Maddison felt Bender shift under the table, before there was a thump as he hit the top of his head. Hearing this as well, Andrew and Claire tried to take credit for the noise by making more noise, banging their hands on the table.

"What is that?" Vernon roared. "What, what is that, what is that noise?"

Then quiet suddenly, Maddison gasped and jumped in surprise as she felt Bender put his head between her legs, his hands coming up to crawl across her thighs.

"What noise?" Andrew said, luckily at the same time as Maddison's gasp.

"Really, sir, there wasn't any noise..." Maddison tried to say, but couldn't finish the sentence as she squealed. Bender had placed a kiss _very _far up her thigh, and was trailing kisses all over her. Everyone started faking a coughing fit, along with Maddison, because if she didn't make _any _noise at all, she would start moaning right there and then.

Incredibly flustered, Maddison asked quickly, "That noise? Was that the noise you were talking about?"

"No, it wasn't. That was not the noise I was talking about. Now, I may not have caught you in the act this time, but you can bet I will."

Allison laughed loudly and Vernon glared at her, saying, "You make book on that missy!" Then he turned to Maddison and shouted. "And you! I will not be made a fool of!"

He turned and walked away, and everyone struggled to cover their laughs as they saw he had a toilet seat cover stuck to his pants. But Maddison wasn't laughing.

As Bender came out from under the desk, he was meet with a barrage of slaps and punches, coming directly from Maddison.

"It was an accident!" He said weakly, holding his hands up to block his face. Maddison glared furiously and shouted.

"How the fuck was that an accident?" He smiled sheepishly at her and she crossed her arms, waiting for his reply. When he didn't she just shouted once more, "You're an asshole!"

Bender smirked. "So sue me..." he said, before pulling her forwards and smacking a kiss onto her lips. She groaned, letting her anger go for now, and kissed back, though rather reluctantly. Bender pulled back from her, and with a triumphant smirk, he sauntered over to Brian and held out his hand.

"So, Ahab...Kybo Mein Doobage..." He said, and getting what he meant, Brian pulled the bag of Marijuana out of his pants and handed it over. Bender walked off towards the back of the room, assuming they would follow. But Andrew shouted after him.

"Yo waistoid...you're not gonna blaze up in here!" Bender ignored him, only grinning slightly as he heard Maddison sigh and get to her feet, following him towards the back of the room. She was followed by Claire and then Brian.

Bender collapsed into a circle of chairs, and started carefully unwrapping the Marijuana as Brian, Maddison and Claire sat down around him in the chairs. Rolling up a cigarette, Bender lit a match, taking an easy drag as though he did it every day. Which he probably did. Then he handed across from him to Maddison, who took a drag just as easily, breathing the smoke in then letting it out in one long breeze.

She handed it off to Brian, who seemed to get the idea of it pretty quickly, that you didn't suck it straight into your lungs. He handed it back to Maddison, and she continued on, becoming higher and higher with each drag. Bender rolled another, handed it to Brian, and then another for Claire.

Maddison watched blankly, slightly impressed, as Bender lit a match by flicking it across the back of his teeth. He lit Claire's fag, and she took a drag, before coughing loudly.

Brian and Maddison roared with laughter as she struggled, before Brian took another drag and started eating the smoke, before saying in a weird voice.

"Chicks, cannot hold der smoke! That's what it is!" Maddison giggled at the look on his face, before Claire slurred.

"Do you know how popular I am? I'm so popular, everybody loves me so much, at this school..."

"Poor baby," Bender pouted at her, just as Maddison groaned and stumbled to her feet, swaying slightly as she walked away from the group. Bender watched her go, frowning like a child that didn't get what he wanted, and asked, "Where're ya goin'?"

She turned back to him and shock her head, holding a finger to her lips as she swaggered away. She slowly sat down, lying on the floor with her arms and legs spread-eagled. Eyes closed, she hummed loudly to a beat in her head, before singing loudly. **(I know this song didn't come out until 2013, but I like it)**

_"__I don't know just how it happened,_

_I let down my guard..._

_Swore I'd never fall in love again_

_But I fell hard._

_Guess I should have seen it coming,_

_Caught me by surprise..._

_I wasn't looking where I was going,_

_I fell into your eyes._

_You came into my crazy world like a cool and cleansing wave._

_Before I, I knew what hit me baby you were flowing through my veins..._

She grinned, opening her eyes and continuing as she watched Andrew prance around the upper levels, dancing and skipping before he stripped off his jumper and sweater and jumped onto a chair. From there, he ran back to his smokey room, closed the door, and screamed so loudly the glass broke.

She laughed, closing her eyes again, and started clapping loudly along with everyone else, but stopped abruptly as she felt a weight on her stomach. Her eyes flew open and her gaze meet Bender's. He was sitting on top of her hips, grinning down at her with his hands on her waist. She gaze a crooked smirk and, with surprising strength, flipped them over so she was straddling him. He groaned in pleasure as she ran her hands up his chest, across his neck and tangled through his hair, leaning down to kiss him.

There was no hesitation now as she took his lip between her teeth and bit down softly, feeling his moan vibrate through his chest. It was barely distinguishable due to the blaring music, and only she was the once to hear. But that was just fine.

There was no pause, no decision to be made, no slow approach. Bender moved in, and his mouth consumed hers. He tasted like smoke and alcohol…and something sweeter, darker. His tongue swept out against her lips and she let him in, begged him in. He filled her mouth, stroking the most sensitive spots and retreating only to return. She couldn't hold back the moan that escaped as his mouth slanted over hers again. She arched into him, bringing her breasts in contact with his chest, and he made a sound like a growl. It was a heady feeling, that power, and she knew she would do whatever she needed to hear it again.


	6. Chapter 6

Moments after Maddison had joined Andrew and Brian, they were all laughing loudly, about nothing really in particular.

"No no man, no; you got a middle name?" Andrew laughed threw the words. Maddison slapped a hand over her eyes, her giggles dying down to small smiles.

"Yeah, guess..." Brian said slowly, not really wanting to say. But they all lazily rolled around on their seats as they heard Allison's voice. She was walking towards them from beside the sculpture, smiling knowingly as she took interest in the conversation.

"Your middle name is Ralph, as in puke..." She said, so Brian, Andrew and Maddison looked at her in confusion. "...your birthday is March 12th, you're five-nine and a half you weigh a hundred and thirty pounds and your social security number is 0-4-9-3-8-0-9-1… 3."

Andrew looked impressed as he asked, "Wow! Are you psychic?"

Allison smiled, happy with his response, but still said, "No..."

Brian looked at her, confused, and asked, "Well would you mind telling me how you know all this about me?"

Allison reached slowly into her bag. "I stole your wallet..." She produced it in her hands and grinned sneakily.

"Give it to me..." Brian said immediately, but Allison snatched her hand away.

Allison shook her head, "No..."

"Give it!" The smile left Allison's face and she reluctantly handed over the wallet. Brian glanced through it to make sure nothing was missing.

"This is great..." He muttered. "You're a thief too, huh?"

Allison glared at him. "I'm not a thief!"

"Multi-talented!" Brian offered, and she huffed.

"What's there to steal?" She asked, "Two bucks and a beaver shot!"

"A what?" Andrew asked with a laugh.

"He's got a nudie picture in there!" Allison added. "I saw it, it's perverted!"

Maddison grinned, and leant forwards in her chair. "Alright, let's see it!"

o.O

On the other side of the room, Bender was brushing his teeth with Claire's eyelash brush, looking at her cosmetic hand mirror.

Claire was looking through Bender's own wallet, at a stack of photo's he had. "Are all these your girlfriends?" She asked him, skipping through them.

Bender didn't stop to look at her. "Some of them..."

"What about the others?" Claire asked.

"Well, some I consider my girlfriends and some..." He paused before finally answering, "I just consider..."

"Consider what?" She asked.

"Whether or not, I wanna hang out with them..."

Claire looked at him, slightly disbelieving. "You don't believe in just one guy, one girl?" She asked.

Bender turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. "Do you?"

"Yeah..." Claire sighed, nodding. "That's the way it should be."

"Well, not for me..." Bender said, closing the mirror. Claire looked at him hard before asking.

"What about for her?" Bender looked up as she gestured over to Maddison, who was laughing at a picture Allison had handed her.

"I-I don't know yet…" Bender answered, and Claire was surprised to hear the honesty in his voice. Though, as she looked closer, she realised a soft glint in his eyes as he gaze at the other girl. "She's different, but I'm not sure yet…"

"Why not?"

Bender clearly didn't want to answer that, so doing one if the things he was good at, he acted defensive and asked her angrily:

"How come you got so much shit in your purse?" Claire scoffed at him.

"How come you got so many girlfriends?"

Bender glared at her. "I asked you first…"

She shrugged gently and answered, "I dunno…I guess I never throw anything away."

Bender glanced at her as though that answered her own question, before glancing over at Maddison. "Neither do I…"

"Oh…" Claire said, and smiled slightly as she realised what he meant. She watched, smiling, as he took the photos from her and ripped them in half…

They looked back over to see Andrew, Brian, Allison and Maddison grinning as they poked through Brian's wallet. Maddison and Andrew sat side-by-side, smirking and guffawing as they found his fake I.D.

Andrew grinned, and commented, "This is the worst fake ID I've ever seen..."

Brian laughed as Maddison asked, "Do you realize you made yourself sixty eight?"

"Oh, I know...I know, I goofed it..." Brian answered, lazily looking over at them.

"What do you need a fake ID for?" Andrew asked.

Like it was obvious, Brian exclaimed, "So I can vote!"

Allison looked up suddenly, causing Maddison to jump from the movement, and asked.

"You wanna see what's in my bag?"

Together they all shouted quickly, "No!" But it was too late.

Allison looked hurt and resentful, and just to spit them she dumped the contents of her bag onto the seat between her and Brian. Lots of stuff tipped out, including silk panties, tampons, a bar of soap, a washcloth and a comb.

"Holy shit!" Maddison practically shouted in surprise, not noticing as Bender automatically turned to her from across the room. She shuffled across the floor for a closer look, just as Andrew asked.

"What is all that stuff?"

"Do you always carry this much shit in your bag?" Brian asked.

Allison repeated almost confidently, "Yeah...I always carry this much shit...in my bag...You never know when you may have to jam..."

"Are you gonna be like a shopping bag lady? You know like, sit in alleyways and like talk to buildings and wear men's shoes and that kinda thing?" Brian asked without tact, and Maddison flicked her leg out to kick him in the shin. Allison hid her glare as she answered:

"I'll do what I have to do..."

"Why do you have to do anything?" Maddison asked her quietly.

And with a surprising amount of feeling, she answered, "My home life is un...satisfying..."

Brian looked at her as though she were vaguely stupid, and asked, "So you're saying you'd subject yourself to the violent dangers of the Chicago streets because your home life is 'unsatisfying?'"

"I don't have to run away and live in the street..." Allison defended herself. "I can run away and, go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains. I can go to Israel, Africa, Afghanistan..." She hesitated, surprised at her compassion

Brian looked at her for a few seconds more before turning to Andrew and saying.

"Andy...you wanna get in on this? Allison here says, she wants to run away, because her home life is unsatisfying..."

"Shut up, Brian!" Maddison shouted but he ignored her. She glared, furious at him, as Andrew said.

"Well everyone's home lives are un-satisfying...If it wasn't, people would live with their parents forever..."

"Yeah, yeah I understand," Brian answered for her. "But I think that hers goes beyond, you know, what guys like you and me...consider normal unsatisfying..."

Allison sighed and started packing her things away, "Never mind...forget it, everything's cool!"

"What's the deal?" Andrew asked her, not quite realising why she was upset.

"No!" Allison muttered, looking at him with contempt. "There's no deal, Sporto. Forget it, leave me alone."

"Wait a minute, now you're carrying all that crap around in your purse," Andrew suddenly said. "Either you really wanna run away or you want people to think you wanna run away."

Allison pronounced both words carefully as she said, "Eat shit!"

She got up and walked hurriedly away, leaving the two boys and Maddison to stare after her, Maddison with worry.

"The girl is an island, with herself," She suddenly heard Brian say, and turned to face him. "Okay?"

Maddison stared at him as though he were dirt on her shoe, before jumping to her feet and shouting, "You are so _tactless!_"

She turned on her heel and marched away, jumping over a desk as she went. Everyone but Allison was watching her in silent surprise as she stormed off, knocking anything and everything down in her wake. She stopped at the window, fuming for a reason she didn't know why, and with a huge boost of rage, she slammed her fist into the glass, feeling the skin split as it rained down around her.

She let her arm fall limp again, and turned her face up to the ceiling as she sniffed lightly. There was a trail of warmth down her hand, signalling to her that she was bleeding. That was fairly obvious though, given her hand was hurting like a bitch.

Bender wound his arm around her waist and pulled her close against his side, her cheek resting on his shoulder as he rested his shin atop her head. He breathed in deeply, putting his other arm around her shoulders in comfort as she lightly shook. She relaxed slightly, however, when he placed a gently kiss on her hair, breathing in her scent as though it was the best thing in the world.

And when she realised that her wounded hand was pressed against his side, she yanked back abruptly, cradling it against her chest. He stared down at her, slightly surprised, then looked down at her hand, finally noticing the trails of blood running down it onto the lino-floor. His wide eyes came back up to meet hers. But it was barely a few seconds later when he took her wrist in his hand and pulled her gently along to his table. He grabbed his scarf, pulled her closer to him, and wrapped it as gently as he could around her hand, not given a single fuck about the fact that his scarf was getting covered in blood.

Sighing, Maddison looked up at him and smiled, leaning up once he was finished to kiss him lazily. His lips curved up against hers, his fingers moving up to brush her hair behind her ear, before resting gently against her jaw-line.

They separated a few moments later, and, with linked hands, Bender led her up to the upper levels, sitting down with his back against a post. He pulled her down In front of him, pulling her close enough to sling his legs around her hips from behind.

They didn't speak for a few moments, just sitting there with Maddison's back against his chest, until they heard footsteps on the steps, and the others sat down in a circle around them. Claire easily struck up a conversation…

"What would I do for a million bucks?" Andrew asked himself, and said the easiest answer. "Well, I guess I'd do as little as I had to..."

"That's boring..." Claire frowned disapprovingly, and Andrew sighed.

"Well, how'm I s'posed to answer?" He asked her, throwing one of his hands up lazily for emphasis.

"The idea is to like search your mind for the absolute limit," Claire explained, and thought for a moment before saying. "Like, uh, would you drive to school naked?"

Andrew laughed, and asked, just to make it complicated, "Um, uh...would I have to get out of the car?"

Claire rolled her eyes. "Of course..."

"In the spring, or winter?"

"It doesn't matter..." But when all of the blokes gave her a pointed look she relented and said, "Spring..."

"In front of the school or in back of the school?"

"Either one..."

Andrew smiled and shook his head before finally admitting, "Yes..."

"I'd do that!" They all looked around at Allison's revelation, Maddison with a cocked eyebrow. Allison continued, pleased with the attention, "I'll do anything sexual, I don't need a million dollars to do it either..."

Claire smirked at her. "You're lying..."

"I already have...I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal...I'm a nymphomaniac!" Maddison coughed to hide her laugh, finding it hard to believe the girl.

Claire rolled her eyes, and said simply, "Lie..."

"Are your parents aware of this?" Brian asked, completely believing her. Allison shook her head.

"The only person I told was my shrink..."

"And what'd he do when you told him?" Andrew asked.

Allison smirked at everyone, mainly Andrew and answered sneakily, "He nailed me..."

"Very nice..." Claire muttered, slightly disgusted.

"I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape since I paid him," Allison said off-handily, but Claire protested immediately.

"He's an adult!"

Allison was clearly relishing this attention.

"Yeah..." She breezed. "He's married too!"

Claire noted her disgust, turning her head away as though she couldn't look. "Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?" She asked.

"Well, the first few times..." Allison started to say, but Claire interrupted.

"First few times?" Claire asked. "You mean he did it more than once?"

Allison nodded. "Sure..."

"Are you crazy?" It was clear Claire thought that she was.

"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink..." Brian said smartly, causing Maddison to crack the first smile in his direction since his comments about Allison down stairs. He smiled back in relief.

Allison ignored him, and to Claire asked, "Have you ever done it?"

"I don't even have a psychiatrist..." she answered, trying to get around the question without actually answering. But the others noticed, and Allison spoke again.

"Have you ever done it with a normal person?"

"Now, didn't we already cover this?" Claire asked her, looking slightly uncomfortable now.

Bender finally spoke up, staring at her over Maddison's head, "You never answered the question..."

"Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers," Claire protested, but Allison pressed her.

"It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it?" She asked.

Claire frowned at her. "A what?"

"Well, if you say you haven't... you're a prude. If you say you have...you're a slut! It's a trap. You want to but you can't but when you do you wish you didn't, right?"

Maddison nodded, relating, then laughed as Claire denied it.

"Wrong..." The rich girl said.

"Or, are you a tease?" Maddison asked her, smiling cheekily as Andrew answered for her.

"She's a tease..."

"Oh why don't you just forget it...?" Claire sighed, but Andrew laughed at her.

"You're a tease and you know it," He said, then added unwisely. "All girls are teases!"

The three presently in the room glared at him, not agreeing at all.

And to their surprise, Bender said defensively, "She's only a tease if what she does gets you hot..."

"I don't do anything!" Claire protested angrily.

"That's why you're a tease..." Allison said

"Okay, lemme ask you a few questions," Claire asked, and Allison was suddenly defensive.

"I've already told you everything!" She shouted.

"No!" Claire disagreed. "Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love? I mean don't you want any respect?"

"I don't screw to get respect..." Allison answered. "That's the difference between you and me..."

"Not the only difference, I hope."

Maddison giggled at the look on her face, and Claire turned to glare at her. "What about you?" she almost yelled at the laughing girl, who suddenly fell silent. "Nobody's asking you! Have you done it?"

Maddison stared at her, trying to keep a stern look. But she couldn't hold it for long, and started chuckling once more.

"Come on then, answer the question!" Andrew said loudly, drawing her attention.

She smirked at him, and answered honestly, "Yes, I did it. And it was _good_…"

The lot of them stared at her in surprise, before Allison and Andrew cracked a smile and started laughing along with her. But she stopped abruptly as Bender lent down and whispered into her ear, "Not as good as it will be with me…"

She felt a blush run up her cheeks, before quickly turning to Claire to divert the attention, "Face it, you're a tease."

"I'm not a tease!" She protested.

"Sure you are!" Bender said simply. "You said it yourself sex is a weapon, you use it to get respect!"

"No, I never said that, she twisted my words around."

Bender looked at her, "Oh then what do you use it for?"

"I don't use it period!" Claire shouted, on the verge of tears.

"Oh, are you medically frigid," Maddison asked her, sitting up slightly, "or is it psychological?"

"I didn't mean it that way!" Claire said defensively. "You guys are putting words into my mouth!"

"Well if you'd just answer the question..." Bender trailed off.

Brian agreed, saying, "Why don't you just answer the question?"

"Be honest..."

"No big deal..."

"Yeah, answer it!"

"Answer the question, Claire!"

"Talk to us!"

"Come on, answer the question!"

"It's easy, it's only one question!"

Claire silenced all of them by screaming at the top of her lungs.

"No! I never did it!"


	7. Chapter 7

There was silence for two beats before Allison said, smirking, "I never did it either, I'm not a nymphomaniac...I'm a compulsive liar..."

"You are such a bitch!" Claire suddenly shouted, staring at her in horror. "You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!"

"I would do it though...If you love someone its okay... Did you love him?" Maddison turned to look at the girl, but was interrupted as Claire shouted again.

"I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth...you unload all these tremendous lies all over me!"

"You're just pissed off because she got you to admit something you didn't want to admit to..." Andrew said, and it was clear he was right.

"Okay, fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre..." Claire said slowly.

"What's bizarre?" Andrew asked. "I mean we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."

Claire looked at Andrew curiously. "How are you bizarre?" she asked.

But it seemed Allison decides to field that question herself. "He can't think for himself..." She answered.

Andrew stayed silent for a moment, before saying quietly, "She's right...do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's buns together."

Claire laughed, but she was the only one.

Brian turned to Andrew, a frown on his face, and asked. "That was you?"

"Yeah, you know him?"

Brian looked down. "Yeah, I know him..."

"Well then you know how hairy he is, right?" Andrew smiled slightly, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some, some skin too..."

"Oh my God..." Claire muttered, while Maddison, Allison and Bender just waited, listening for the rest of the story.

"And the bizarre thing is," Andrew continued blankly. "Is that I did it for my old man...I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool. He's always going off about, you know, when he was in school...all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right...So, I'm...I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah...he's kinda... he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness. And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him...And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on."

Maddison looked down with a sigh, remembering watching Larry Lester limping out of the school a few hours too early. She had no idea that was why. Andrew started crying slightly, along with Allison, as he continued.

"…And afterwards, when I was sittin' in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry havin' to go home and…and explain what happened to him. And the humiliation...fucking humiliation he mustuv felt. It mustuv been unreal...I mean, I mean, how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way...it's all because of me and my old man. Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this...he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore..."Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family...Your intensity is for shit! Win. Win! WIN!" You son of a bitch! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give...and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me..."

Without any emotion, Bender said, "I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling."

Andrew laughed briefly, feeling slightly better that they weren't judging him too harshly. But when Brian spoke they all fell silent again.

"It's like me, you know, with my grades...like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't." The group frowned at him, surprised at his revelation, and even more so at his insecurity.

"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asked.

"'Cause I'm stupid...'cause I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um...and we had eight weeks to do it and we're s'posed ta, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was s'posed to go on...my light didn't go on, I got a F on it. Never got an F in my life... When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean. I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. 'Cause I thought, I'll take shop, it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average..."

"Why'd you think it'd be easy?" Bender asked him, completely forgetting the point.

Brian looked up at him, and with a sad smile, asked, "Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?"

"I take shop...you must be a fuckin' idiot!" Maddison turned around from in front of him, ready to slap him silly, until she saw the look on his face.

"I'm a fuckin' idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brian asked.

"No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp..."

Brian glared at him, and the ego's rose. "What do you know about Trigonometry?"

"I could care less about Trigonometry..."

"Bender," Brian said smartly, "did you know without Trigonometry there'd be no engineering?"

"Without lamps, there'd be no light!" He retorted.

Claire spoke up then, trying to diffuse the tension. "Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one..."

Allison, feeling left out once more, spoke up, "I can write with my toes! I can also eat, brush my teeth..."

"With your feet?" Claire asked.

"...play Heart & Soul on the piano."

"I can make spaghetti!" Brian suddenly yelled, and Maddison grinned. So could she…

Claire smiled at that, and turned to Andrew to ask, "What can you do?"

At a loss, he frowned, then smiled, "I can...uh...tape all your buns together..."

"I wanna see what Claire can do!" Bender suddenly shouted.

Claire glared at him reproachfully, then said, "What about Mags, what can she do?"

And in her spotlight, Maddison sat up and said brightly, "_I _can sign binding contracts. Oh the _joy _of being emancipated." Brian, Andrew and Claire shook with laughter, while Allison and Bender grinned at the girl. "But seriously," Maddison said, sobering up. "I can…make the best potato bake you'll ever eat..." she grinned at Allison. "…Play a few songs completely on the Piano and Violin…My old friends used to say I was a good singer…" She suddenly shook herself, then said, "But what can Claire do?"

"I can't do anything," She said immediately.

"Now, everybody can do something..." Maddison said reassuringly, giving a smile.

"There's one thing I can do." She hesitated. "No forget it, it's way too embarrassing."

"You ever seen Wild Kingdom?" Bender asked her. "I mean that guy's been doing that show for thirty years."

Claire smiled, and feeling better, said, "Okay, but you have to swear to God you won't laugh...I can't believe I'm actually doing this..."

Claire leant back and ruffled through her handbag. They watched as she pulled out her lipstick, opened it, placed it between her breasts and applied it from her cleavage. She looked up, to show it was perfectly applied.

Everyone clapped, whopping quietly, except for Bender whose clap was slow and sarcastic.

"All right, great!" Andrew shouted, not quite realising what Bender was doing. "Where'd you learn to do that?" he asked.

Claire smiled, and said, "Camp, seventh grade..."

Bender spoke up without emotion. "That was great, Claire...my image of you is totally blown..."

Allison glared angrily at him, and hissed, "You're a shit! Don't do that to her you swore to God you wouldn't laugh!"

"Am I laughing?" Bender asked.

They were all glaring at him, except Maddison who was just staring sadly at the far wall as she realised what Bender was doing.

"You fucking prick!" Andrew shouted.

Bender turned to Andrew, and he spoke, Maddison could see his words hitting home.

"What do you care what I think, anyway? I don't even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference...I may as well not even exist at this school, remember?" He turned to Claire who was looking down shamefully, and said, "And you...don't like me anyway!"

She looked up at him then, and said reproachfully, "You know, I have just as many feelings as you do and it hurts just as much when somebody steps all over them!" Then under her breathe she added, glancing at Maddison, "I feel sorry for the poor girl that ends up with you."

"God, you're so pathetic!" Bender shouted, furious. It seemed he had caught what she said, because his arms around Maddison as though he thought she was right. But he'd never show it. "Don't you ever...ever! Compare yourself to me! Okay? You got everything, and I got shit! Fuckin' Rapunzel, right? School would probably fucking shut down if you didn't show up! "Queenie isn't here!" I like those earrings Claire…"

Quietly, Claire said, "Shut up..."

"Are those real diamonds, Claire?"

"Shut up!"

I bet they are..." Bender said, "Did you work, for the money for those earrings?"

"Shut…your mouth," Claire whispered at the same time.

"Or did your daddy buy those?" Bender continued.

Claire was furious now as she shrieked, "Shut up!" And started to cry.

"I bet he bought those for you! I bet those are a Christmas gift! Right? You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner fuckin' year at the old Bender family! I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said "Hey! Smoke up Johnny!" Okay, so go home'n cry to your daddy, don't cry here, okay?"

A few beats passed as everyone came to a revelation.

It seemed Andrew was the only once brave enough to speak up. "My God, are we gonna be like our parents?" He asked them.

Claire looked over at him, and with tears still shinning in her eyes, she said, "Not me...ever..."

But Allison seemed to disagree. "It's unavoidable, it just happens," she said.

"What happens?" Claire asked her.

She turned to look at the other girls, and with her own tears said, "When you grow up, your heart dies."

"Who cares?" Bender said sarcastically, as though he didn't give a single fuck in the world.

Allison, smiling despite the fact that she was struggling to hold back tears, cried softly, "I care..."

Maddison nodded, and for the second time that day her tears came over. You wouldn't have even noticed if you weren't looking, she was that silent. "Me too…" she whispered sadly.

But she looked up, whipping them away, as Brian said, "Um, I was just thinking, I mean. I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering, um, what is gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all together again? I mean I consider you guys my friends, I'm not wrong, am I?"

Maddison shook her head. No he wasn't wrong. Despite her confident demeanour, she usually choose to be by herself, but it would be a nice change. She would stay friends with anyone that wanted to be from their group.

"No..." Andrew said slowly, agreeing with Maddison.

Brian glanced around at the lot of them. "So, so on Monday...what happens?"

"Are we still friends, you mean?" Claire asked. "If we're friends now, that is?"

"Yeah..." Brian sighed.

"Do you want the truth?" Claire asked, and Brian nodded.

"Yeah, I want the truth..."

"I don't think so..." Claire whispered.

"Well, do you mean all of us or just John?" Allison said, but they all knew the answer before Claire spoke again.

"With all of you..." She said. Andrew didn't seem to like that at all, and neither did Maddison, for they both glared angrily at her.

"That's a real nice attitude, Claire!" Andrew shouted, glaring in disgust.

"Oh, be honest, Andy..." Claire said with her arms crossed. "If Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this, you're there with all the sports. I know exactly what you'd do, you'd say hi to him and when he left you'd cut him all up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him!"

"No way!" Andrew argued.

"'Kay, what if I came up to you?" Allison asked, "Or Maddison?"

"Same exact thing!" Claire shouted, not giving him a chance to reply.

Maddison, seething with fury, sat forwards and screamed, "You are a bitch!"

Claire turned to stare at the other girl, and said, "Why? 'Cause I'm telling the truth, that makes me a bitch?"

"No!" She shot back. "'Cause you know how shitty that is to do to someone! And you don't got the balls to stand up to your friends and tell 'em that you're gonna like who you wanna like! I'd never do that to any of you!"

And there was her accent again. They could tell she was furious.

Claire glared straight back, "Okay, what about you, you hypocrite! Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties? Or take Brian out to the parking lot at lunch to get high? What about Andy for that matter, what about me? What would your friends say if you and Andrew or Brian or Bender were walking down the hall together? They'd laugh their asses off and you'd probably tell them you were doing it with them so they'd forgive you for being seen with them."

Maddison sat back, and said simply, "Well for one, When the fuck have I ever gone to a heavy metal vomit party? Two, I don't have any fucking friends to laugh at them. Third," she turned to say this to him. "Brian, if you want to get high with me you're completely welcome too. That goes to all of you for that matter… And finally, If I even _had _friends to laugh at you guys, I'd drop them all for acting like that!"

Claire seemed to see it as a losing battle with Maddison, because she turned to Bender and yelled, "What about you, huh? What would _your _friends say if we were walking down the hall together?"

Bender glared at her, and just as furious, shouted, "Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends, you don't look at any of my friends and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends so you just stick to the things you know, shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW and your poor-rich-drunk mother in the Caribbean!"

Claire, sobbing once more, screamed, "Shut up!"

"And as far as being concerned about what's gonna happen when you and I walk down the hallways at school, you can forget it!" Bender continued. "'Cause it's never gonna happen! Just bury your head in the sand...and wait for your fuckin' prom!"

"I hate you!" Claire shrieked.

"Yeah?" Bender asked. "Good!"

There was silence for a long while before Brian broke it, saying:

"Then I assume Allison, Mags and I are better people than you guys, huh? Us weirdos..." He turned to Allison, already knowing what Maddison would say, and asked, "Do you, would you do that to us?"

"I don't have any friends..." Allison said softly.

"Well if you did?" Maddison asked, wiping a few stray tears from her face.

"No..." Allison said softly, "I don't think the kind of friends I'd have would mind..."

Brian didn't say anything for a few moments, before he said softly, "I just wanna tell, each of you, that I wouldn't do that...I wouldn't and I will not! 'Cause I think that's real shitty..."

"Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us..." Brian laughed at Claire's comment, and said softly but with meaning.

"You're so conceited, Claire. You're so conceited. You're so, like, full of yourself, why are you like that?"

Crying once again, Claire said, "I'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it! I hate having to go along with everything my friends say!"

"Well then why do you do it?" Maddison asked.

"I don't know, I don't...you don't understand…you don't. You're not friends with the same kind of people that Andy and I are friends with! You know, you just don't understand the pressure that they can put on you!"

Brian was completely shocked. "I don't understand what?" he asked her. "You think I don't understand pressure, Claire? Well fuck you! Fuck you!"

He breathed a deep sigh and hid his face in his hands, crying softly. Maddison and Allison once again felt their eyes fill with tears.

"Know why I'm here today?" Brian suddenly asked. "Do you? I'm here because Mr. Ryan found a gun in the locker..."

Maddison froze up completely, images and memories flashing through her mind of her dad, standing above her, a gun to his temple, his blood blowing out all over the wall…

Bender hugged her tighter to him, sensing where her mins was going, and whispered in her ear, "Deep breathes…" Surprisingly enough, his words helped, and she slowly felt herself calm down.

"Why'd you have a gun in your locker?" Andrew asked him sadly, though the answer was obvious. Maddison was relieved to see that nobody but Bender noticed her moment.

"I tried. You pull the fuckin' trunk on it and the light's s'posed to go on...and it didn't go on, I mean, I..." Brian trailed off sadly

"What's the gun for Brian?" Andrew demanded to know, wanting him to say it out loud.

"Just forget it..." Brian sighed, but Andrew would have none of that.

"You brought it up, man!" He shouted.

Brian wiped at his eyes. "I can't have an F, I can't have it and I know my parents can't have it! Even if I aced the rest of the semester, I'm still only a B. And everything's ruined for me!"

"Oh Brian..." Claire breathed with pity, but Brian just bashed a chair over in shame and regret.

"So I considered my options, you know?" he said.

"No!" Maddison shouted, sitting up and crawling over to his side. She grabbed onto his hand, and said forcefully. "Killing yourself is not an option! It's never and option…"

"Well I didn't do it, did I?" Brian said softly to her. "No, I don't think so!"

"It was a hand gun?" Allison asked.

Brian didn't look up as he said, "No, it was a flare gun, went off in my locker."

"Really?" Andrew asked, and he started to laugh. Maddison could barely suppress her own as Brian said.

"It's not funny..."

They all started to laugh loudly, seeing the humour of the situation, including Brian.

"Yes it is..." Brian laughed, and it got much funnier when he told them, "fuckin' elephant was destroyed!"

"You wanna know what I did to get in here?" Allison suddenly asked them. "Nothing...I didn't have anything better to do."

Everyone stared at her for a few moments before they roared with laughter one more.

"You're laughing at me..." Allison sighed.

"No!" Andrew protested immediately, but started laughing again as Allison joined in.

"Yeah you are!" She gasped between her laughs.


	8. Chapter 8

Soon after that Brian moved off into the music room and set up a record. The music started loudly, echoing around the library, and the boy started jumping around the room. Maddison and Allison were spinning around the room together, crazily bumping into each other as Bender road the sculpture above them, Claire danced on the stairs, and Andrew tapped his leg to the beat.

Allison, Maddison and finally Bender jumped up onto the table, and together started shuffling along to the side. Then the three guys jumped up onto the table and did their little dance, going backwards and forwards side by side with in sync.

After them, the girls were up on the table, shuffling their feet with their hands hooked over in the air. Then, jumping high from the table, Maddison landed by Bender's side, grabbed his face, and shoved her tongue down his throat, kissing him deeper as he responded eagerly.

The other completely ignored them, still dancing to for the duration of the song. But, looking outside for a split second and seeing that it was getting dark, Bender pulled back and sighed, leaving them to go back to his little storage closet.

After he had left, Andrew, Maddison, Allison, Claire and Brian were sitting, in that order on the railing, not speaking as they waited to be able to leave.

"Brian?" Claire finally spoke up, asking the boy.

"Yeah?"

"Are you gonna write your paper?"

Brian turned to look at her, letting his chin fall from his hand. "Yeah, why?" he asked.

"Well, it's kinda a waste for all of us to write our paper, don't you think?" Andrew, Maddison and Allison looked over at them, knowing what she was asking.

"Oh, but that's what Vernon wants us to do..." Brian trailed off.

"True, but I think we'd all kinda say the same thing."

"You just don't want to write your paper...Right?" Brian smirked at her, and she returned it.

"True, but, you're the smartest, right?" Claire said, playing on his skills to get him to comply.

With pride, he nodded, "Oh, well..."

"We trust you..." Claire continued.

Brian glanced over at, Maddison, Allison and Andrew who nodded in approval.

"Yeah..." Maddison and Andrew said together.

"All right, I'll do it..."

"Great..." Claire smiled.

Claire looked over at Allison, who looked back, and said to her, "Come on..."

"Where're we going?"

"Come on!" Claire repeated.

Maddison watched them go with a small smile, before she jumped to her feet, grabbed her things, and walked down the halls with her bag slung over her back. It seemed her luck willed out, because she didn't run into anyone as she went to the storage closet.

She opened the door slowly and entered, closing it quietly behind her as Bender looked up. He tried to hide the excited and happy smile off his face as he asked:

"You lost?"

She just stared at him, her own grin on her face as he finally smiled back.

He got back to his feet, a good head taller than her, and she leant forwards, pressing a soft kiss to his neck before pulling back.

He looked down at her, surprised, and asked. "Why'd you do that?"

"'Cause I knew you wouldn't."

He smiled gently, leant down and pressed his lips to hers, pushing her slightly so her back pressed up against the door, the only spot not crowded with old furniture. Her mouth opened, willingly letting his tongue slid in and thrust against hers, playing with her mouth as though he had done it dozens of times. They fell into a pattern, one that was sure to come around more than once.

Moaning, Maddison pushed herself off the ground, wrapping her legs tightly around Bender's hips as though he were the only thing keeping her anchored to the ground. And from the way he was making her feel, she wouldn't be surprised if she floated away…

Bender's hands busied themselves quickly enough, both sliding a different way from her hips, one curving around her waist to grab her arse, while the other tenderly stroked over her breast. She breathed deeply, in and out, as he pulled away, trying to get in as much breathe before they started again…

It was around ten minutes later when they finally stopped, Maddison allowing her legs to slide from his waist back to the ground. She kissed him once more, not giving him any entrance at all in case they got went at it again, before turning back around to leave the cupboard, Bender trailing after her. He would have stayed in that closet, frozen in pleasure, had she not taken hold of his hand and dragged him along.

They meet up with the others fairly soon after they left the cupboard, and the five of them walked down the hall towards the entrance to the school. As they walking, they passed Carl the janitor, who nodded to Brian.

"See ya Brian..." He said, and Brian responded with a simple.

"Hey Carl..."

Bender stopped, keeping Maddison back with him due to their linked hands, and said to Carl, "We'll see you next Saturday..."

"You bet!"

Claire kissed Brian softly on the cheek, smiling slightly as he got into his car, and she into her fathers.

Andrew and Allison kissed gently on the lips, and pulled back a moment later, smiling at each other. Allison ripped a patch off Andrew's jacket and got into her car, just as Andrew's dad arrived and looked over at Allison in surprise. Andrew got into the car and they drive off.

Watching the cars drive away, Maddison said to Bender, not looking at him, "You should come back to mine for a while…"

He turned to look at her, and with a grin on his face, pulled his sunglasses on. She led him across the field, and as they walked, Bender thrust his fist up into the air, triumphant.

o.O

_Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...a lover...and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club._


	9. Chapter 9

Maddison was feeling extremely nervous when she walked through the doors of Shermer High School on the morning of March 26th, 1984. It was incredibly exhausting, the differences between Saturday and today, when there was no one walking through the halls.

She walked hastily, in silence, not wanting to draw attention to herself until she spotted someone else from 'the Breakfast club' as Brian had put it. She was actually quite worried, about what they would do when they saw her. Though not about Brian and Allison, she had no doubt that they would greet her with cheerful smiles, just as she would them.

So seeing Andrew walking down the hall in the opposite direction as her, she couldn't help but rub her slightly sweating palms on her dark blue skirt, throwing him a smile as his eyes met hers. She breathed a sigh of relief when he returned it, and veered off in her direction.

"Hey Mags," He said affectionately, his grin fading to a small smile as he slung an arm comfortably around her shoulder and started walking with her. They both ignored everyone's stares, just shattering away as they searched for Allison, Brian, Claire and John.

"I don't think Allison or John are here yet," Andrew said, "But one of my mate's said they saw Claire being dropped off, and Brian in the science block." He didn't need to speak of Brian though, because the moment the words were out of his mouth, Maddison gave a shout of 'Brian!' and the man in question turned to see them. The relief was quite obvious on his face as he walked up to them.

"Hey...Hey, guys," He said nervously, but Maddison just grinned once more and linked her arm with his. She was feeling much more comfortable now, her nerves evaporating like mist in the sun as she met up with more and more of 'The Breakfast Club.'

"You seen Allison anywhere?" Andrew suddenly asked, drawing Brian's and Maddison's attention as he looked anxiously around the hall. Brian and Maddison shared a glance, before the former pointed at something, or rather someone.

"That's her right there."

The quiet girl was looking at them intensely, a question in her eyes as she wondered how they would react to the sight of her. Her defence wasn't as strong as she'd liked it to be, in fact her heart and hope had soared when she'd spotted the three of them together. That could only mean one thing right…?

It seemed so, because Andrew hurried his footsteps towards her, a bright, nervous grin on his face as he reached her side and spoke a few words, which Maddison and Brian couldn't hear. They watched though, as Andrew finished speaking and leant down to kiss her, his lips pressing gently against hers despite the mutters, gasps and wolf-whistles going around them as people noticed the interaction between the two.

Maddison and Brian just smirked with eyebrows raised, pleased for their new friends and their flourishing relationship. Though Maddison didn't really get a chance to feel happy for them, because a pair of arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her backwards up against someone's chest as that someone pressed light kisses to her neck.

"Miss me John?" she asked smugly, turning in his arms to wrap her own around his neck. He just smirked, nodding once as he leant down and kissed her, hunger and relief seeping out of him as he pressed himself up against her, not that she was complaining. She too, was extremely delighted see him, her mouth greedily moving against his as he thrusted his tongue into her mouth, encourages by her enthusiastic kiss. The sort of kiss that reminded her exactly of what had happened the afternoon and following morning after their detention on Saturday…

o.O

_Stepping lightly through the doorway, Maddison slowly led Bender into her apartment, nervously watching his expression as he looked around. His eyes had widened straight away, but from good or bad, she didn't know. So she just waited, watching his expression change from surprise to wonder to surprise again, until finally landing on being impressed. He turned to face her, asking easily:_

_"__You have this whole place to yourself?" She nodded, slightly self-conscious as she threw her bag on the counter and stripped off her gloves to join them. She took Bender's hand once more, showing where everything was, the kitchen, living room, bathroom, her bedroom, spare bedroom and balcony. Half of them were quite obvious, mainly because walking into the apartment led you straight through to the kitchen, the living and dining room only separated by the kitchen island. And beyond that was the balcony, and off to the side through a sliding door was the master bedroom with the en-suite. _

_Without even consciously realising this, the moment Maddison had finished with the tour she led him back towards her bedroom, sliding the door closed and closing the curtains as Bender stood in the middle of the room, wondering what she was doing despite having a very strong idea. _

_Which was why he was only a _little _bit surprised when she walked up to him and grabbed him by his jacket collar, pulling him down with a small tug so she could kiss him. _

_"__Take this off," Maddison suddenly begged between kisses. "I want to see you…to feel you against me." She reached for the hem and pushed it higher. Bender stopped and watched with passion-filled eyes. Beautiful and luminous, full of love and longing…She revelled that this perfect, amazing man could want her so much._

_He raised his arms, pulling his shirts over his head and flinging it aside. Maddison stared at him in awe, he was sculpted and so beautiful to her. She felt his solid muscles working each time he'd held her, and finally, she could look upon him undaunted._

_He swallowed, as his eyes fell to her mouth. His fingers began working on the buttons of her blouse, slowly exposing the black lace and creamy flesh as his lips left a hot path from her jaw down her neck to her collarbone._

_"__This is really going to happen," he breathed as he bent and ran a trail of hot, open-mouthed kisses to the curve of her shoulder. His fingers were soft, brushing over her skin and giving goose bumps as he pushed the blouse down her arms. 'Dear God, babe. You're gorgeous."_

_His fingers ghosted over the top swells of her breasts visible above the delicate edge of her bra. Despite the tension, she reached up and cheekily took out the screws that were still there, flinging them across the room with a quiet laugh. She closed her eyes and offered up her mouth, silently begging to end her torture, and her hand reached out to find the waistband of his pants. They were buttoned shut and she frantically worked the knot…he was still, except for his mouth running along her cheekbone and then back toward her mouth._

_'__I missed my mouth on yours, missed my hands on your body…" He was making love to her with his words even though he was barely touching her, and her body came alive. Every inch of skin burned for his touch, her lower body hot and pulsing, her breathing was shallow and rapid. His hands tangled in her hair, gently tugging her face closer to his…_

o.O

Maddison felt a blush rise up her cheeks at the memory of what had happened right after that, and pulled away from the kiss Bender had bestowed upon her. The rest of the students in the room were having a hard time deciding on whether to gawp at Andrew and Allison or Maddison and Bender, so really they had just split into two groups. Brian just stood grinning, his arms crossed in amusement at everyone's reactions. But he was pleasantly surprised when Claire came up behind him and nudged her shoulder gently against his.

And noticing that the finale part of their group was there, both couples, Allison and Andrew, and Maddison and Bender, moved over to Brian and Claire, grinning to each other as they walked down the hall, prepared for the day that would start them on the road for a friendship that would last until their very last days. Even more so, for Maddison and Bender…

**So yay! This story is finished, and I hoped you enjoyed the story of Maddison and Bender. If you want to read a few more of my stories just go to my profile, and follow me on Tumblr at ****__**


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